Bharti Airtel reported another drop in quarterly results, as India's largest mobile operator suffered from tough competition at home and the currency devaluation in Nigeria. The annual drop in revenues accelerated to 14 percent, compared to 12 and 3 percent in the two previous quarters.
Revenues for the fiscal first quarter to June dropped 14.0 percent year-on-year to INR 219.6 billion. Excluding divestments of towers and its Bangladesh operations, revenues fell 11.1 percent on an underlying basis. Airtel said the Nigerian currency effect was a negative 2.6 percent on revenue.
EBITDA was down 18.4 percent to INR 78.2 billion, leading to a fall in the margin to 35.6 percent from 37.5 a year ago. Net profit plunged 74.9 percent to INR 3.67 billion, and operating cash flow (EBITDA - capex) declined 73.5 percent to INR 12.37 billion.
In India, revenues fell for a second quarter, down 10 percent to INR 172.4 billion, and EBITDA dropped 21 percent to INR 64.7 billion, hurt by the price war started by new entrant Reliance Jio. While Airtel showed modest growth in fixed and TV services, mobile service revenue was down 14 percent year-on-year to INR 129.1 billion.
The operator still added 7 million new mobile customers in the quarter, up 56 percent from a year earlier, as well as a record 5.2 million new mobile data users. The total mobile customer base passed 280.6 million at the end of June, of which 62.56 million used data. ARPU was down 21 percent year-on-year and 2 percent lower versus the previous quarter, at INR 154.
Total voice traffic rose 10.7 percent on a sequential basis, and data traffic more than doubled in the three months (tripled year-on-year). Average usage per customer rose a slower 7.7 percent in minutes and 96 percent in data compared to the previous quarter.
In Africa, revenues were down 7 percent at constant currency rates to USD 736 million, while cost-cutting efforts led to a 20 percent annual jump in EBITDA to USD 206 million. Airtel continued to reduce capex, at just USD 49 million for the 15 countries, leading to a more than doubling in operating cash flow to USD 157 million.
The customer base in Africa shrunk by another 22,000 in the quarter, to just over 80 million, but was still up 5.6 percent from a year earlier. ARPU fell both on a quarterly and annual basis, to USD 3.1, and average voice usage was also lower, at 149 minutes per customer. Total data traffic rose 75 percent year-on-year and 20 percent from the previous quarter, and average usage reached 860 MB per customer. Just over 24 percent of customers used data services.
